Dennis Genpo Merzel, a Dharma successor of the late Taizan Maezumi-roshi and founder of the sometimes controversial Big Mind™, has announced that he will disrobe as a Zen priest and resign his elder status with the White Plum Asanga. He has, however, announced his intent to continue working under the auspices of Big Mind™. This comes on the heel of comments circulating around the web that Merzel announced in late January that he’d had an affair of several years with one of his Dharma successors, KC “Kyozen Sato” Gerpheide.

In his announcement, found on the Big Mind™ website, Merzel writes:

I will spend the rest of my life truly integrating the Soto Zen Buddhist Ethics into my life and practice so I can once again regain dignity and respect. My actions have caused a tremendous amount of pain, confusion and controversy for my wife, family, and Sangha, and for this I am truly sorry and greatly regret. My behavior was not in alignment with the Buddhist Precepts. I feel disrobing is just a small part of an appropriate response.”

I have chosen to disrobe as a Buddhist Priest, and will stop giving Buddhist Precepts or Ordinations, but I will continue teaching Big Mind. I will spend the rest of my life truly integrating the Soto Zen Buddhist Ethics into my life and practice so I can once again regain dignity and respect. My actions have caused a tremendous amount of pain, confusion, and controversy for my wife, family, and Sangha, and for this I am truly sorry and greatly regret. My behavior was not in alignment with the Buddhist Precepts. I feel disrobing is just a small part of an appropriate response.

I am also resigning as an elder of the White Plum Asanga. My actions should not be viewed as a reflection on the moral fabric of any of the White Plum members.

As Genpo Merzel, I will continue to bring Big Mind into the world and to train and facilitate people who wish to study with me. I will not give up on, and will still be available for people who wish to continue studying with me as just an ordinary human being who is working on his own shadows and deeply rooted patterns.

With great humility I will continue to work on my own shadows and deeply rooted patterns that have led me to miss the mark of being a moral and ethical person and a decent human being. I appreciate all the love and support as well as the criticism that has been shared with me. Experiencing all the pain and suffering that I have caused has truly touched my heart and been the greatest teacher. It has helped open my eyes and given me greater clarity around my own dishonest, hurtful behavior as well as my sexual misconduct. I recently entered therapy and plan to continue indefinitely with it. I am in deep pain over the suffering I have caused my wife, children, students, successors and Sangha.

With Sadness and Love,

D. Genpo Merzel

How foolish you are, grasping the letter of the text and ignoring its intention! - Vasubandhu

Merzel admitted to a multiyear affair with KC “Kyozen Sato” Gerpheide one of his students and successors during his annual retreat in Ameland, Holland. During the time in question Gerpheide received Dharma Transmission in the Soto Zen lineage from Merzel. Merzel and his current wife Stephanie Young Merzel are separated and seeking divorce.

How foolish you are, grasping the letter of the text and ignoring its intention! - Vasubandhu

The White Plum Asanga Board of Directors has accepted the resignation of Genpo Merzel from White Plum Asanga membership as well as an Elder of the White Plum. This resignation is a result of his recent disclosures regarding sexual misconduct with several of his students. Please see the Big Mind website for their statement. On behalf of the White Plum organization, I extend our support for Genpo's efforts in recovery and treatment and to the teachers and members of the Kanzeon Sangha in their efforts in healing and realigning their communities. --- Roshi Gerry Shishin Wick, President, WPA

How foolish you are, grasping the letter of the text and ignoring its intention! - Vasubandhu

Although this lineage has produced fine teachers and may have a significant impact on the future propagation of Zen Buddhism in the West, there have always been issues with sexual morality. In part this is because many of these teachers have been overly attached to the sexual revolution of the 60's and 70's and in part because they aren't monks - this is important to remember.

"Even if you practice only for an hour a day with faith and inspiration, good qualities will steadily increase. Regular practice makes it easy to transform your mind. From seeing only relative truth, you will eventually reach a profound certainty in the meaning of absolute truth."Kyabje Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche.

These comments are meant at a level of generality and aren't specifically concerned with Merzel's situation.

It seems to me that our culture has a lot of hypocritical expectations and contradictory imperatives around sexuality, particularly among leaders, particularly among "spiritual" people, and arguably, particularly harshly among men.

One approach might be represented by Dan Savage: if you're going to be in a conjugal relationship, be "GGG" about it, which is to say, be totally honest and open, be good at it, giving and generous, and game for whatever your partner (or partners) might need in order to express themselves sexually. This means, basically, that if you feel polyamorous desires, you arrange your life so that it's not a secret and there's no hypocrisy about it. It's acceptable for a Zen teacher to have a plain-vanilla hetero marriage or a long-term monogamous gay partnership, which is really playing it safe as a conventional choice, but can we really even imagine a community in North America where a responsibly polyamorous Zen teacher could get along without a bump in the road? Not so much.

Another approach is the "completely heterosexual" Ted Haggart thing: just repress what's really going on with you and hew the hetero-normative line in public, and occasionally hit up a prostitute in secret.

Another approach is celibacy, which is a tried and true method and arguably a radical position: a Great Refusal or "Big No." One wonders if celibacy is more manageable than a badly-arranged conjugal relationship.

My point is that it's just too easy to point at Merzel and say he's a creep. The creepiest thing to me about his apology is the boring, conventional, psychoanalytic recover-ese in it: "owning my responsibility"? Who talks like that? Where did that script come from? It's the authoritative discourse of our time on Mental Hygiene, and it's a drag because it's just not honest enough, like a show-trial confession. It's a long fall from the Shout of Lin Chi, and a very tight box to pack our teachers into.

Jikan wrote: The creepiest thing to me about his apology is the boring, conventional, psychoanalytic recover-ese in it: "owning my responsibility"? Who talks like that? Where did that script come from? It's the authoritative discourse of our time on Mental Hygiene, and it's a drag because it's just not honest enough, like a show-trial confession. It's a long fall from the Shout of Lin Chi, and a very tight box to pack our teachers into.

Jikan! Now you've opened a can of worms here - or run over a hornets nest -

We might take a long time to discuss these issues actually. However -

"owning my responsibility"? Who talks like that? Where did that script come from?

Merzel had a good start IMO (I never heard taisho from him or was in dokusan with him but was impressed by one of his books). But there was this tendency to psychologize Buddhism for a long time and some people actually thought it would be the hallmark of Western Buddhism. This seems esp. to be true of people around NY (although it might also be true of people in Cali or CO but I haven't run into those people). Some people actually thought that Western Buddhism would essentially be a fusion of "the best" of Buddhism and psychology. Merzel may have fallen into that. Anyway I have heard otherwise rational and communicative people use exactly that term before ("owning my responsibility"). It's part of the psychobabble stuff from the 90's.

"Even if you practice only for an hour a day with faith and inspiration, good qualities will steadily increase. Regular practice makes it easy to transform your mind. From seeing only relative truth, you will eventually reach a profound certainty in the meaning of absolute truth."Kyabje Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche.

I'd like to qualify my earlier comments, which were colored by my own frustration with a few responses to Merzel's situation and others like it outside this board. I just think it points to a bigger problem in our culture vis a vis sexuality and the expectations bought to bear on it.

Here's a more skillful way to put it:

Assume that some Buddhist teachers in North America & Europe, the global north broadly speaking, will be involved in conjugal relationships. Is it fair to assume that all those relationships will conform to the rather rigid confines of "traditional" monogamy? I'm of the view that Buddhism has more to teach Madame Bovary than the reverse. [that is, even though many monogomous relationships find ways to work, some are simply not workable at all and create more hardship than bodhicitta.]

This is not to excuse dishonesty or endorse uses of sexuality that are harmful to others. I'd rather learn from an honest polyamor, that is, someone who just comes out and says "Hi there, I'm Jane Doe Roshi and I'm happily in an open marriage" or "I'm involved with multiple partners" than someone who, for whatever reason, is put in the position of being dishonest and hurting people while pretending to lead an Honest Life.

Celibacy is one solution, and for many it's a great solution. It won't be the solution for all teachers or all traditions, however, and this is why this question of nonharming in the realm of sexuality will come up again and again and again in a sex-obsessed culture like ours in North America. This is what I'd like to get at, what I'd like to provoke.

Final comment: the reason Merzel's apology bothered me has to do, again, with the cookie-cutter nature of it: like he's adhering to a certain set of social expectations (like a marriage...), rather than something earnest. It's what Oprah would want to hear. The complete lack of specifics and reliance on polite, sanitized euphemisms is the thing. What kind of a box has he been put into, and why is he seeking to repair it rather than break from it? That's my own judgment, of course, and it may represent my own impatience and hangups than anything else.

I think he gives a different example when a wrongdoing has been displayed in public compared to the other recent case of Eido Shimano. It looks positive to me.

The other issue that should be considered is the Buddhist rhetoric compared to reality. One's wisdom is supposed to reflect in one's deeds. Being ethical is theoretically a prerequisite to higher achievements, that's one of the reasons why monastics are the bearers of the tradition and not laymen. Zen is said to be the direct path to perfect enlightenment. It's just that it doesn't exactly show in its living form. What can we make of that?

1Myriad dharmas are only mind. Mind is unobtainable. What is there to seek?2If the Buddha-Nature is seen,there will be no seeing of a nature in any thing.3Neither cultivation nor seated meditation —this is the pure Chan of Tathagata.4With sudden enlightenment to Tathagata Chan,the six paramitas and myriad meansare complete within that essence.

1Myriad dharmas are only mind. Mind is unobtainable. What is there to seek?2If the Buddha-Nature is seen,there will be no seeing of a nature in any thing.3Neither cultivation nor seated meditation —this is the pure Chan of Tathagata.4With sudden enlightenment to Tathagata Chan,the six paramitas and myriad meansare complete within that essence.

We, the undersigned Zen Buddhist teachers, endorse these recommendations to the Kanzeon ZenCenter Board, and to whatever body governs the Big Mind trainings regarding the rehabilitationof Genpo Merzel after his recent admission of sexual misconduct with students. Because thisrepeats a pattern of more than 30 years, many of those signing on to these recommendationswould prefer more stringent measures. We agree, however, that Genpo should take a leave ofabsence from teaching in any capacity. Further more, the appropriateness of his return tofunctioning as a teacher in any capacity should be determined by a therapist who is an expert inthe field of misconduct of this nature.

1) TEACHING: Take an indefinite leave, but at least one year, off from all teachingduties. To make it clear that Genpo takes working with this long-term issue seriously,and to provide the time and energy necessary for the work that needs to be done(personal inventory, specific therapy, reconciliation and community-healing, work withhis marriage) we recommend that he takes an indefinite leave from all teaching in allforms until he has been cleared to do so by a therapist who is an expert in this field.

2) THERAPY: Expert inpatient treatment. There is an over 30 year pattern ofrepeated sexual misconduct with students, repeated episodes of discovery, emotionalcommunity upheaval, liquidation of assets, moving to another location, finding a newstable partner, and beginning the cycle all over again. This kind of deep-seated,repetitive pattern is not amenable to ordinary therapy. It requires admission of the fullextent of the problem and surrendering to treatment with experts in sexual addiction,misuse of power and clergy misconduct. We can provide recommendations for anappropriate residential center. Full disclosure is important both for therapy and to avoidmore traumatic revelations. This process has served other teachers and centers in thepast, and has proved its efficacy.

3) SALT LAKE KANZEON CENTER: Make every effort to retain the Salt Lakefacilities. The Kanzeon sangha has entered a critical period since these newrevelations. A significant amount of time, at least a year, will be needed for the manyprocesses that can help support sangha members through this time of great transition.They need a place to hold events, to gather, to support each other, to grieve, to bewitnessed, to learn, and hopefully to reconstitute their spiritual practice. To lose theirteacher and their center at the same time would be a double blow.

4) MONEY ISSUES: Reach out to other teachers to lead workshops and retreats.Genpo is justifiably worried about stepping back from teaching for an extended periodbecause of the effect on the center and staff of loss of revenue. In a recent similarcase, teachers from various traditions volunteered to come and teach at a Zen centerthat had lost its teacher. Particularly in a center focused on one charismatic teacher,this has the advantage of bringing in new voices and viewpoints, and reassuringstudents about the many ways to manifest and practice the dharma. It keeps the centeropen and makes spiritual support constantly available during a time of extra need. Italso helps with revenue.

5) PUBLIC STATEMENT and APOLOGY: It is very important for Genpo to make apublic, thorough statement and apology about what he has done, and state hisplans to set things right, for himself, his students and the Kanzeon Center. Theabsence of a statement from the teacher himself provides fertile ground for gossip,leaks, speculation, gathering resentment and unfounded reactions. The statementcould be published on the Kanzeon, Big Mind and White Plum websites and on hisFacebook page. The statement on the Big Mind website is a start. But without specificactions to make amends, it is not enough. Such actions should be spelled out in thepublic statement.

6) OUTSIDE EXPERT ASSISTANCE IN HEALING THE SANGHA: Hire experts tohelp with the work that needs to be done. There are many pieces to the work thatneeds to be done to help the sangha: witnessing, processing, education about clergymisconduct and power structures, setting up prevention strategies. We highlyrecommend the Faithtrust Institute, which has had decades of experience in thesematters and has excellent trainers, curricula and media materials for appropriateworkshops and trainings. See http://www.faithrustinstitute.org for books, media, trainings, andconsultations on clergy misconduct.

Fascinating. So many Zen teachers who believe that it is therapy to solve the problems and not Zen. Then what is Zen good for, really?

1Myriad dharmas are only mind. Mind is unobtainable. What is there to seek?2If the Buddha-Nature is seen,there will be no seeing of a nature in any thing.3Neither cultivation nor seated meditation —this is the pure Chan of Tathagata.4With sudden enlightenment to Tathagata Chan,the six paramitas and myriad meansare complete within that essence.

Astus wrote:Fascinating. So many Zen teachers who believe that it is therapy to solve the problems and not Zen. Then what is Zen good for, really?

It's interesting who's not on the list but that could be an organizational issue. Zen is for enlightenment and the alleviation of suffering. Therapy may be needed just like any other kind of medicine. I think given past publicized issues with other teachers some have drawn the conclusion that therapy may be a useful approach in some cases.

"Even if you practice only for an hour a day with faith and inspiration, good qualities will steadily increase. Regular practice makes it easy to transform your mind. From seeing only relative truth, you will eventually reach a profound certainty in the meaning of absolute truth."Kyabje Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche.

Astus wrote:Fascinating. So many Zen teachers who believe that it is therapy to solve the problems and not Zen. Then what is Zen good for, really?

I like how Thannisaro Bhikkhu put it: Psychology is for bring dysfunctional people to a functional state of neurosis. Buddhism is for taking people from a functional state of neurosis to a state of no neurosis.

Still, I can't help but think part of this is linked to a discoupling of 'Zen' from its Mahayana Buddhist foundation. You master basics like generosity, morals, restraint, contentment with little before delving into emptiness.

In fact, I dare say much of the fault lies in the surrounding community and they way they are set up. Their own teachers failed to excommunicate them and/or gave them Dharma transmission prematurely and the communities they were embedded in did not have solid enough preceptory foundations to simply have them disrobed. The problem is larger than simply two people acting immorally. There is a larger issue of them having arrived in the positions they did when they were evidently not properly qualified and there being a lack of a wider community capable of adressing their transgressions when they first started happening.

"Even if my body should be burnt to death in the fires of hellI would endure it for myriad lifetimes As your companion in practice" --- Gandavyuha Sutra

I think that as Genpo roshi is supposed to be a long term practitioner who is proficient in Zen (at least on some levels) he should be able to use Buddhism in correcting whatever unwholesome habits he may have. I don't doubt the usefulness of therapy, it's just that I believe Buddhism has the proper methods for building up beneficial mental habits and fighting the harmful ones. In fact, that's what correct effort (samyag-vyāyāma) is about.

We should also remember that Genpo's primary teacher, Maezumi roshi, was an alcoholic and also had sexual affairs of his own. So, is it possible to separate personal from professional life in case of Buddhism? Unlikely.

1Myriad dharmas are only mind. Mind is unobtainable. What is there to seek?2If the Buddha-Nature is seen,there will be no seeing of a nature in any thing.3Neither cultivation nor seated meditation —this is the pure Chan of Tathagata.4With sudden enlightenment to Tathagata Chan,the six paramitas and myriad meansare complete within that essence.

Perhaps I should specify that by 'surrounding community' I don't mean to cast aspersions on any of the people involved in these communities. I was more thinking of the communal structures they have inherited not being well suited to address these things.

"Even if my body should be burnt to death in the fires of hellI would endure it for myriad lifetimes As your companion in practice" --- Gandavyuha Sutra

Astus wrote:I think that as Genpo roshi is supposed to be a long term practitioner who is proficient in Zen (at least on some levels) he should be able to use Buddhism in correcting whatever unwholesome habits he may have. I don't doubt the usefulness of therapy, it's just that I believe Buddhism has the proper methods for building up beneficial mental habits and fighting the harmful ones. In fact, that's what correct effort (samyag-vyāyāma) is about.

We should also remember that Genpo's primary teacher, Maezumi roshi, was an alcoholic and also had sexual affairs of his own. So, is it possible to separate personal from professional life in case of Buddhism? Unlikely.

I've come across a few dodgy teachers, and I am convinced that in some cases they really believe the fantasies they develop about themselves, which gullible students then accept. In such circumstances, it is difficult to find someone who feels able to shout that the Emperor has no clothes, so maybe online forums are useful for enabling the airing such things.

Astus wrote:We should also remember that Genpo's primary teacher, Maezumi roshi, was an alcoholic and also had sexual affairs of his own. So, is it possible to separate personal from professional life in case of Buddhism? Unlikely.

Absolutely it is. It just involves not harming. Now the relationships involved will mirror the current state of affairs in samsara but Merzel's behavior is apparently quite troubling. I'm nor sure how this should be approached actually - people will have issues as long as they have bodies and minds. But it appears that ethics and just plain living the life of a Buiddha have taken a backseat to teaching and cultural forms and this has caused problems. So I have been told that in Japan drinking has been deified and in the West sex has been deified.

Bus basically deep kensho or satori + meditation and contemplation should result in Buddha action and that should actually solve these problems.

"Even if you practice only for an hour a day with faith and inspiration, good qualities will steadily increase. Regular practice makes it easy to transform your mind. From seeing only relative truth, you will eventually reach a profound certainty in the meaning of absolute truth."Kyabje Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche.